Polyp Bail Out , what to look for?

marxman · Dec 31, 2021

Hi All,

I've just woken up this morning to find my candy cane coral having lost come of its polyps.

This coral has been healthy for the last 6-7 months. It resides in a pretty established tank so there have been no changes to lighting, flow, or water parameters over the last few months.

I notice that this sort of behaviour seemed to happen to a torch coral I had in another part of the tank a while ago. A few of the heads receded and never recovered, the others are still healthy.

I know this is a long shot.. the old what killed my coral question... But if no tank parameters seemed to have changed, what would you guys suggest could be irritating / killing parts of my corals?

Thanks for any comments, and happy new year!!

Uncle99 · Dec 31, 2021

Looks like someone had a late dinner to me.

SeaworthyAquatics · Dec 31, 2021

Could be brown jelly disease if it happened to a torch previously. Bacteria might be in the water column and spreading to other lps in the tank. Won't matter at that point if the parameters are good, the disease will still spread. Seen any brown slime on any of them? Also what are your parameters? Stable doesn't always mean they are good. Something set off the original death and it's most likely something like nutrients bottomed out for a time or a big alk or temp swing. Something like that.